Q&A With Christina Katz

YAY…it’s Thursday. And that means, Christina is answering some questions!

An Interview with Christina Katz

Author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform & Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

Christina Katz is the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform (Writer’s Digest Books). She started her platform “for fun” seven years ago and ended up on “Good Morning America.” Christina teaches e-courses on platform development and writing nonfiction for publication. Her students are published in national magazines and land agents and book deals. Christina has been encouraging reluctant platform builders via her e-zines for five years, has written hundreds of articles for national, regional, and online publications, and is a monthly columnist for the Willamette Writer. A popular speaker at writing conferences, writing programs, libraries, and bookstores, she hosts the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon. She is also the author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids (Writer’s Digest Books).

Q: What is a platform?

CK: Long story short: Your platform communicates your expertise to others, and it works all the time so you don’t have to. Your platform includes your Web presence, any public speaking you do, the classes you teach, the media contacts you’ve established, the articles you’ve published, and any other means you currently have for making your name and your future books known to a viable readership. If others already recognize your expertise on a given topic or for a specific audience or both, then that is your platform.

A platform-strong writer is a writer with influence. Get Known explains in plain English, without buzzwords, how any writer can stand out from the crowd of other writers and get the book deal. The book clears an easy-to-follow path through a formerly confusing forest of ideas so any writer can do the necessary platform development they need to do.

Q: Why is platform development important for writers today?

CK: Learning about and working on a solid platform plan gives writers an edge. Agents and editors have known this for years and have been looking for platform-strong writers and getting them book deals. But from the writer’s point-of-view, there has not been enough information on platform development to help unprepared writers put their best platform forward.

Now suddenly, there is a flood of information on platform, not all necessarily comprehensive, useful or well organized for folks who don’t have a platform yet. Writers can promote themselves in a gradual, grounded manner without feeling like they are selling out. I do it, I teach other writers to do it, I write about it on an ongoing basis, and I encourage all writers to heed the trend. And hopefully, I communicate how in a practical, step-by-step manner that can serve any writer. Because ultimately, before you actively begin promoting yourself, platform development is an inside job requiring concentration, thoughtfulness and a consideration of personal values.

Q: How did you come to write Get Known Before the Book Deal?

CK: I already had a lot of momentum going when I got the deal for a very specific audience. I wrote a column on the topic for the Willamette Writer’s newsletter. Then I started speaking on platform. When I gave my presentation, “Get Known Before the Book Deal,” at the Writer’s Digest/BEA Writer’s Conference in May 2007, Phil Sexton, one of my publisher’s sales guys, saw it and suggested making the concept into a book. Coincidentally, I was trying to come up with an idea for my second book at that time and had just struck out with what I thought were my three best ideas. My editor, Jane Friedman agreed with Phil. That was two votes from people sitting on the pub board. They converted the others with the help of my proposal, and Get Known got the green light.

Q: Why was a book on platform development needed?

CK: Writers often underestimate how important platform is and they often don’t leverage the platform they already have enough. At every conference I presented, I took polls and found that about 50 percent of attendees expressed a desire for a clearer understanding of platform. Some were completely in the dark about it, even though they were attending a conference in hopes of landing a book deal. Since book deals are granted based largely on the impressiveness of a writer’s platform, I noticed a communication gap that needed to be addressed.

My intention was that Get Known would be the book every writer would want to read before attending a writer’s conference, and that it would increase any writer’s chances of landing a book deal whether they pitched in-person or by query. As I wrote the book, I saw online how this type of information was being offered as “insider secrets” at outrageous prices. No one should have to pay thousands of dollars for the information they can find in my book for the price of a paperback! Seriously. You can even ask your library to order it and read it for free.

Q: What is the key idea behind Get Known Before the Book Deal?

CK: Getting known doesn’t take a lot of money, but it does take an in-depth understanding of platform, and then the investment of time, skills and consistent effort to build one. Marketing experience and technological expertise are also not necessary. I show how to avoid the biggest time and money-waster, which is not understanding who your platform is for and why – and hopefully save writers from the confusion and inertia that can result from either information overload or not taking the big picture into account before they jump into writing for traditional publication.

Often writers with weak platforms are over-confident that they can impress agents and editors, while others with decent platforms are under-confident or aren’t stressing their platform-strength enough. Writers have to wear so many hats these days, we can use all the help we can get. Platform development is a muscle, and the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Anyone can do it, but most don’t or won’t because they either don’t understand what is being asked for, or they haven’t overcome their own resistance to the idea. Get Known offers a concrete plan that can help any writer make gains in the rapidly changing and increasingly competitive publishing landscape.

Q: What is the structure of the book and why did you choose it?

CK: Writer Mama was written in small, easy-to-digest chunks so busy new moms could stick it in a diaper bag and read it in the nooks and crannies of the day. Get Known is a bit more prosaic, especially in the early chapters. Most of the platform books already out there were only for authors, not writers or aspiring authors. To make platform evolution easy to comprehend, I had to dial the concepts back to the beginning and talk about what it’s like to try and find your place in the world as an author way before you’ve signed a contract, even before you’ve written a book proposal. No one had done that before in a book for writers. I felt writers needed a context in which to chart a course towards platform development that would not be completely overwhelming.

Introducing platform concepts to writers gives them the key information they need to succeed at pitching an agent either via query or in-person, making this a good book for a writer to read before writing a book proposal. Get Known has three sections: section one is mostly stories and cautionary tales, section two has a lot of to-do lists any writer should be able to use, and section three is how to articulate your platform clearly and concisely so you won’t waste a single minute wondering if you are on the right track.

Q: At the front of Get Known, you discuss four phases of the authoring process. What are they?

CK: First comes the platform development and building phase. Second comes the book proposal development phase (or if you are writing fiction, the book-writing phase). Third, comes the actual writing of the book (for fiction writers this is likely the re-writing of the book). And finally, once the book is published, comes the book marketing and promoting phase.

Many first-time authors scramble once they get a book deal if they haven’t done a thorough job on the platform development phase. Writers who already have a platform have influence with a fan base, and they can leverage that influence no matter what kind of book they write. Writing a book is a lot easier if you are not struggling to find readers for the book at the same time. Again, agents and editors have known this for a long time.

Q: What are some common platform mistakes writers make?

CK: Here are a few:

They don’t spend time clarifying who they are to others.

They don’t zoom in specifically on what they offer.

They confuse socializing with platform development.

They think about themselves too much and their audience not enough.

They don’t precisely articulate all they offer so others get it immediately.

They don’t create a plan before they jump online.

They undervalue the platform they already have.

They are overconfident and think they have a solid platform when they have only made a beginning.

They become exhausted from trying to figure out platform as they go.

They pay for “insider secrets” instead of trusting their own instincts.

They blog like crazy for six months and then look at their bank accounts and abandon the process as going nowhere.

I’ll stop there. Suffice it to say that many writers promise publishers they have the ability to make readers seek out and purchase their book. But when it comes time to demonstrate this ability, they can’t deliver.

My mission is to empower writers to be 100 percent responsible for their writing career success and stop looking to others to do their promotional work for them. Get Known shows writers of every stripe how to become the writer who can not only land a book deal, but also influence future readers to plunk down ten or twenty bucks to purchase their book. It all starts with a little preparation and planning. The rest unfolds from there.

Q: Couldn’t any author have written this book? Why you?

CK: I have built a career over the past decade empowering writers. I’ve developed and built my own platform as a writing-for-traditional-publication specialist, and I’ve worked with others as a writing and platform-development instructor. Many of the people I’ve been working with are landing book deals and while the other hundred-or-so writers I work with a year are developing their skills, I notice patterns of behavior—what leads to success, where writers get stuck, and how I can be helpful in these rapidly changing times in the industry.

I’ve witnessed too many writers, who were off to a great start, hopping online and quickly becoming very lost. I started to write about platform in Writer Mama, How To Raise A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, but I quickly noticed that more details on platform development were desperately needed. My platform is based on helping others. I have a vested interest in seeing the people I work with—and those who read my book—succeed. Writers are my tribe.

WOW…Thank you Christia for so much terrific information. If you have additional questions, Christina will be stopping by thorughout the day to answer them. Just leave your question in the comment section.

I have a question I’ve been wondering about for awhile. What kind of platform do fiction writers need under their belts? Is the fiction platform more like an online following, or are there other pieces to the puzzle?

I’ve always heard “platform” discussed in reference to non-fiction writers, and promotion discussed for fiction after the deal. I’m thinking now that this is totally incorrect, from reading this post! 😛

How does a “relative” noone, who can write well, AND has a good story to tell build a platform and get “known” before the book deal? It seems so much easier for nonfiction…but with fiction, it just seems confusing!

Hey, Rebecca. Thanks for asking. For fiction, memoir and children’s writing the quality of the mss. is always going to be primary. No quality, no deal. So, for these three types of writing, spend the lion’s share of your time on getting the mss. up to snuff. But here’s the thing, you can’t rely on your publisher for any publicity. So, let’s imagine what that might look like: you write your brains out, your polish the heck out of your mss., you get an agent and a book deal, you turn it in and…now what? Now you take your advance money and you invest it in all of your platform weak spots. So let’s say you are pretty good at building websites, blogging and online stuff in general. Well, then pay for a publicist to help you maximize exposure of your book at launch time. Line up your book launch team, so when your pub. date rolls around, you won’t be sitting around waiting for something to happen. Cuz that would be like waiting for lightening to strike. It doesn’t work. Expect that anything that is going to help your book sell is going to be initiated by you and you won’t be disappointed. In addition, to these ideas I have about six more suggestions for ways to “spoke” your book into more forms of writing, classes, talks, etc. that will help draw attention to your book. But the main thing is to nail the mss. and get it in the hands of a reputable agent or editor.

Okay, so to build on what I’ve already said about writing fiction for traditional publication, here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say your genre is historical romance. How can you set yourself up while you are still working on your mss.? Here’s what I would do: I would find some author role models. I would study what they do to promote themselves and their books. How do they reach out to their audience? What helps them sell books? Because ultimately, if you want to be an author, then you also need to want to sell books, not merely write them. So I’d ask each and every one of you fiction writers to follow the steps in section one of Get Known that help you zoom in on the specific section of the bookstore you are aiming for. Then you need to become a part of that tribe. One easy way to do this is to try being of service to the authors who already have books (without having any expectations of the favor being returned). Help the existing authors sell their books and you’ll learn about selling books. Don’t just connect up with other aspiring authors. You need to identify the best role models for you and get busy learning from them. I talk about all the ways to do this in GK. Then jump to section three of the book. Is your bio, mission, author identity, etc. all tied back in with the very specific type of book you are writing? Because if not, how is someone who stumbles on your site going to know exactly what kind of writer you are? You get about five seconds! A common mistake aspiring authors make is to think, I’m just going to be nice to everyone and make a lot of friends. And I’m not going to say not to be nice, but being nice is not a business or a literary strategy. Right? And finally, for any fiction writers who are dabbling in multiple genres, I would say it’s time to pony up. Pick a genre and commit to it and you will be amazed at how much more momentum you have when you look back one year from now.

Did I miss anything? Bear with me, I’ve been watching thunderstorm warnings for two hours. 🙂

WOW Christina…thank you. You gave me an awesome game plan for the next few weeks… a place to start, if you will. Now I am totally excited to spend a little time, in between revisions of course, working on this. NICE.

Wow! This is fantastic advice. We’re going to have to take a very critical look at our on-line presence and platform to date. We certainly didn’t have any kind of plan in place when we developed our website or started blogging. Lots to think about. Thank you for a great interview, ladies!